Smart Doll (Danny Choo)

Blaue Nebel

Son of Sanguinius
Судя по написанному, он постепенно придёт к философии продажи лимиток :) Самые продаваемые молды станут доступны 24/7 остальные - время от времени. Пускай доступность такой лимитки выше, чем у ДД, но всё же...
 

Smarter

Well-known member
Из аппарел сета кстати исчез кулон, теперь его только отдельно можно купить. Цена при этом не изменилась. Также ankle boots теперь доступны для покупки отдельно (ранее - эксклюзив аппарел сета)

Кстати, забавное наблюдение - последняя выставленная кукла, Symphony, имеет интересный ценник - ¥69,600 ¥62,000 за аппарел сет. 17,600 - это цена футболки, ботинок и штанов по отдельности (и 52,000 - базовая кукла). Видимо решил показать, сколько можно сэкономить, если взять одежду сразу в сете, а не докупать по отдельности.
 

Smarter

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Еще одна распродажа от Денни и небольшой поток мыслей в честь этого. Выставил Мирай на распродажу всего лишь через 3 месяца после ее ДР, класс...
First off we have a load of new releases including Mirai’s braid wig, Lace Top, Sandals and more.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/new

The time sale has been activated and this time round its Mirai (Classic) Smart Doll that gets the special treatment - she is available for the next 48 hours at 11% off.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/smartdolls/products/mirai-suenaga-smart-doll-essential

It’s been rather busy which is why we didn’t get round to giving the girls their birthday treatment - better late then never.

There are a load of other items that have gone into the time sale too which may tickle your fancy.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/time-sale

Anyway,

Today I wanted to leave a quick note about…the power of your mind (lol). Well I’ve always been meaning to make time to write again and will save the bulk of what I want to say in that post but for today just a quick summary.

#Your most important asset#

I don’t presume that I will live until any particular age. I think the mistake that many humans make is that they will live until old age and live off their pension. The fact is that we see people dying all the time on the news and at one point in time, the people that died on the news were watching the news previously of other people dying and probably didn’t even think much about it.

We can die absolutely anytime. Here are some examples of what I’ve seen on the news that stuck in my mind. A group of students minding their own business on the street when all of a sudden a car plunges into them killing them all.

A car driving beside a tanker when all of a sudden the tank falls off and crushes the car - killing the driver.

Time is an asset that we are all given at birth and is the most valuable thing that we own - but we don’t know exactly how much of it we have. Money is not the most valuable asset we own and is a concept that humans created when bartering stopped working.

“I’ll swap this apple that I grew in my field for that sandal you made from that cow” - this concept stops working when more than the usual amount of insects eats the crop or when a drought affects the amount of cows that are available to make into shoes (for example). Now the apple seller wants 2 sandals for his 1 apple but the sandal maker wants 6 apples for his one sandal. For reasons like this we invented money - “I’ll pay 2 shells for that apple.”

But time has been with us since the beginning and as long as you are on Earth it does not speed up or slow down (time kinda changes speed when you get to higher altitudes - search “Einstein Time” if you are interested). Well it does kinda speed up as you get older but I will leave that for another post - I’m still trying to calculate a formula.

#Why you don’t need to worry anymore and what happens if you do#

In short, your most precious asset is way too precious to spend it worrying or stressed out - its not worth it and I’ll tell you what happens if you do decide that being stressed comforts you.

The power of the mind is incredible - once you focus very hard on something, you will be able to visualize it and make it come true. Whatever you spend your time thinking about, you will attract it.

I have spinal hernia - when reading through my diary I realized that whenever I went through a bleak period and became depressed and stressed, my hernia would cause me the most utmost pain ever ever with absolutely nowhere to run.
I discovered research showing that stress caused inflammations in the body and I related my bouts of stress to the pain I was having - now I can’t afford to be stressed as it will mean weeks not being able to walk again like before.

I’m not saying that I’ve become immune to stress - I get bombarded with production headaches every hour of the day - I just turn that frustration into energy which I use to fix the problem instead of letting it weigh me down.

Most humans have two minds - an unconscious and conscious. Your unconscious mind will automatically motivate you to go get food, go for a poo and run away from danger.

The “Run away from danger” part is what makes you worry. Humans have evolved to imagine scenarios that have kept us alive. For example, if we heard a rustle in the bush - we create the scenario “it could be a hungry tiger - I’m outta here.”
Without this worry factor built into our unconsciousness, we would have stuck around when we heard that rustle - and we probably got eaten maybe 5 out of 10 times. The humans that developed the worry factor got-the-hell-outta-there when they heard that rustle which contributed to us being alive today.

This worry factor was great in the past when danger lurked left right and center but not so much in todays society. In fact the most dangerous thing is ourselves if we choose to stick to our biological programming. Worrying can be comforting - it almost makes you feel like you are doing something about what is causing you to be stressed due to the scenarios you are creating your mind - but in fact all you are doing is making it worse and strengthening the neural pathways that are already in place in your brain. The more you strengthen those neural pathways, the better you will get at worrying and the less likely you are to take action to get yourself out of that rut.

#How you can rewire your biological self#

I’m learning to juggle right now. At the beginning it was very difficult - my hand just did not want to let go of the ball at the appropriate time because my unconscious mind was holding on to it - it was automatically saying “well if I let go I could drop it!”

I tried to tell myself “well its just a ball and not a grenade - its OK to drop it” but it still didn’t work. I felt great discomfort trying to let go of the ball while my unconscious mind was trying to hold on to it. It was if my hand had a mind of its own.

But the discomfort, failure and practice immediately starts to grow new neural pathways to make it easier and eventually I was able to start juggling - I’m not great at it but at least I can kinda juggle and let go of the ball at the appropriate time.

The brain is only 2% of your body mass but uses up 20% of your energy - it is wired to conserve energy - if it wasn’t then you would be using up too much energy and would have to constantly be eating like the American Pygmy Shrew. This is why neural pathways are created to help you do things easier and use up less energy. YOU can physically change your brain to get what you want - just like the way you can use your brain to cause inflammations in your body making you physically sick.

Do you remember what it was like to learn to ride a bicycle? I only learned when I got to Japan in my early 30’s. I was wobbling all over the place and panicked when a car was driving by. Do I turn the handle left or right when a car drove past me? As I got more practice in, I felt less tired because new neural pathways were created and my conscious brain was using less energy as I didn’t have to think about how to ride a bike - my unconscious mind took over.

When you get into the habit of not worrying and focusing on what you want, nothing - absolutely nothing can stop you. I can tell you from experience that you will fall flat on your face many times but it will be a learning that is needed to rewire yourself and to get you to where you want in life.

The power of the mind heh?

Thats about it!

Danny
 

Smarter

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Мика, вид спереди.

Также Денни объявил, что все заказы дороже 50кен будут доставляться бесплатно (то есть, все куклы как минимум)
 

Smarter

Well-known member
Еще одно информационное письмо от Денни с потоком мыслей

It’s only been just over a month since we last spoke but a lot has happened - one hour in Smart Doll Land is 7 years on Earth.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/1-hour-here-is-7-years-on-earth

You know I just didn’t understand Interstellar when I watched it first but after studying a little bit about relativity theory I think I want to watch it again. Anyway back to topic….

First off we have a load of new releases including Glasses, Lady Liberty Set (only a few left), Hiroshima Jeans, CJ Tee and more.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/new

Price reductions have been made across many products so dig around to see what may tickle your fancy. In the future I will make a wishlist so that you will be automatically mailed when price reduction or time sales are activated.

We also have 3 (count em) new Smart Dolls.

Ruby

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/smartdolls/products/smart-doll-ruby

Summer
https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/smartdolls/products/smart-doll-summer

Felicity
https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/smartdolls/products/smart-doll-felicity

Later this month Trinity should be released with Kanata and Serenity following next month

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkiCdJiB8iX/?taken-by=dannychoo

To let you know that the Apparel Set is now seasonal and will change more often. There is a link on the product detail page of Smart Dolls (where it says “which is the right set for you” - https://shop.smartdoll.jp/pages/apparel-help

This link (which is the same content as the popup on the product page) will always be updated so keep your mince pies on it if you are just about to buy a Smart Doll apparel set.

When you place an order next time, fill in your phone number on the order confirmation page and the system should update you by sending a SMS (as well as email) - some mails don’t seem to be getting through as providers just bounce them.

I will be attending Otakuthon in Montreal Canada - 3 - 5th August.

http://www.otakuthon.com/2018/guests/#DChoo

I do have a panel where I will share learnings in my career instead of trying to sell you stuff which I used to do many moons ago and when I look back at my keynotes I cringe. I do touch briefly on some Smart Doll news though but most of the panel is used to give back - not to take more.

We will have a booth too where we will be selling Smart Doll for 830 CAD each - as with all our events in the past, we sell curated apparel sets where the value of the doll + apparel + import taxes amounts roughly 830 CAD. We can’t let folks choose apparel items as I need to curate to create a balance for the whole show. If you prefer to pick your own apparel then its probably better if you order from the site as usual and our team will send (as usual).

If you are interested then send mail to support@smartdoll.jp with the title "OTAKUTHON - name of doll" letting us know which Smart Doll you would like - Trinity should be available just before we fly. This is a first come first serve as we can only bring a small amount. We ask that you collect your dolls at the end of the last day. We don’t usually bring apparel items and focus on Smart Dolls only. Anyway send mail and our support team will attend to your needs and explain payment options but remember first come first serve.

Anyway…

I’ve got a ton of things to say about the clutter humans acquire throughout life but today I will share a very short summary with you until I get time to write about it more.

This is my desk of late which has changed a lot throughout the years.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlNW2PyhMLV/?taken-by=dannychoo

I try to keep my environment as clutter free as possible. Clutter makes it difficult (for me anyway) to focus on the important things in life due to the small distractions of “stuff” which needs to be dusted or kept somewhere. Even if that “stuff” is hidden out of sight - it ends up being extra weight - just imagine being the captain of a boat - your stuff maybe in some cabinet out of sight but you will feel the weight as you steer your ship which will affect major decisions you make in life.

I know folks who want to be doing great things with their career but let their “stuff” weigh them down. Getting rid of stuff you like is a sacrifice - it can be very hard throwing stuff out or giving it away! But make it a habit to offload and lighten your life and you will start to notice many good things happen. Out of 100 things I throw out, maybe I ended up needing 2 of those things some years down the line - no biggie - just buy them again. But those 100 things you threw away will free up an incredible amount of time and time is your most precious asset which we talked about last time.

https://info.smartdoll.jp/en/posts/your-most-important-asset

Folks think that throwing stuff out is a loss and humans hate the thought of something being taken away from them. Just imagine buying a pair of underwear which is too tight - but you already paid for it so you wear the underwear despite the fact that its very uncomfortable. Thats great - you end up using the item that you paid money for but end up walking funny for the rest of your life. Humans see a situation like this as a Sunk Cost.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost

I see this as a learning - I actually have bought a tight pair of boxer shorts but decided not to wear them after I noticed my voice becoming high pitched.

I got the next size up which was a good fit but I would not have known until I tried the smaller ones - you don’t really want to walk into a store to try on underwear which has skid marks left by the previous guy.

Another reason why folks don’t generally get to get rid of stuff is because stuff has a physical form which takes precedence above your most precious asset which has no physical form - time.

Because time has no form, people use their time as if they have a ton of it. Remember - clutter takes up time - whether you are dusting it, storing it or making space for more clutter.

Thats about it!

Danny
 

Smarter

Well-known member
I’ll try to keep it short today because I’m kinda fading away - you know that Infinity War feeling. I still feel jet lagged but its been a week already since I got back from Canada. Next trip will be New York to attend Anime NYC.

Anyway - a ton of new goodies released tonight including Option Hand Set 3, Military Field Jacket and more.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/new

I’ve just had a bunch of meetings with Bandai Namco so Mika Jougasaki can soon go up for pre-order once I secure the various factories involved in production which branch across Japan from Kyushu, Hiroshima, Saitama, Tokyo.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmsrUBxB9qV/?taken-by=dannychoo

The second in the Bandai Namco X Smart Doll collaboration will be announced this Sunday.

Kanata orders open this Friday and start shipping Monday but may take up to 6 weeks to ship.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmm9I05BI1o/?taken-by=dannychoo

I need more time to go through your selfies for the surgical mask - a zillion of you submitted and am having a hard time choosing. Some are clear cut must-be-chosen but some don’t quite make it mainly due to composition/where the doll is located/too tight or too far from camera etc. Anyway I will publish the collage for you to see what type of photo was chosen and then perhaps you can submit something for the next one.

I Finally got round to releasing the Smart Doll Apparel patterns.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/new/products/patterns

You are free to use and modify these patterns for your own projects at school or home which includes selling anything you make - I shall take no fees whatsoever - what you make is yours as long as you use the patterns to make Smart Doll apparel - and in return if your goodies are awesome, I will help you sell your Smart Doll apparel by listing your Etsy etc link on the Smart Doll Apparel Makers page which I will get up soon.

#importance of Side Projects

I encourage everybody to have side projects where one will not only learn many new crafting skills but also everything that goes into making a product - selling online, payments, inventory management, shipping & tracking, customer support etc.

Many side projects in my career have contributed to what life is now - learning Japanese, learning programming and 3D graphics, making websites and so on. We can all make time for this even though we are schooling or working.

The skills and experience you gain through side projects will also open up more opportunities in life and maybe even prepare you for when life does not go as planned.

#Be nice to the bus driver

If you are going to sell stuff online or start a business - there is something I strongly recommend. There is a saying in Japan - "The customer is god" - but whatever you do - never treat customers like god - treat them like a business partner. Treating customers like god cultivates bad behavior. If you travel on public transport in Japan and the UK, you will see posters along the lines of "We shall not tolerate violence directed at our drivers."

Passengers beat up and or swear at public transport staff for a bus being late a few mins. Why? Because we live in a society where customers are treated like god. Why? Because the customer has paid a dollar and thus they feel they have the right to abuse and shout at folks who provide services. I am sure you have seen it yourself - maybe in a restaurant - or maybe on a bus.

I have experienced this first hand too - as a customer who has been obnoxious to airline staff. I think back and am ashamed at my behavior. An airline check-in staff was giving us a hard time about the names on our passport and would not let us board - I got frustrated and took out my anger on the staff - but why? because I am a "paying" customer? Does paying give me the right to be obnoxious to others?

But Karma is a thing - what goes round comes round. In my case, after being horrible to the airline check-in staff, I get to see the same staff member who I was horrible at the boarding gate - and what do I do? I look down at my feet in shame.

Having said that, you should never look down upon customers either - treat them like a business partner - you provide a service and you trade it for money - neither one of you is above the other.

When you put customers in front of everything you do - you fundamentally change everything you set out to do - you stop doing it for passion and end up doing it for the money.

At Smart Doll Land, we treat our customers as equal business partners - neither we or the customer is above each other. If customer was indeed god, I would make sure my staff stayed behind until 12 midnight like most other Japanese companies - so that we can deliver stuff to god (the customer) on time.

Instead, we all leave at around 6PM - its important that our staff get rest and go home to watch The Toys That Made Us on Netflix or get in some Super Mario time.

If your first goal is to live your passion - the money will come sooner or later anyway - no need to focus on money first.

Thats about it!

Danny
 

Smarter

Well-known member
First things first - a ton of items have been sucked into the Time Sale Tunnel and many of the items have been priced suspiciously low - its because we need to remain lean as we prepare for cortex.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/time-sale

Chitose is also available for 11% off in the time sale which lasts for the next 38 hours or so.

If you submitted a selfie then check out this post to see if you are in it and leave a note when ordering something so that we can get your mask out to you.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/products/selfie-collage

Speaking of masks, Trinity paint masks are fixed and she is in production now - final product photos will be taken when we get a bit of sun - its been cloudy for quite a bit here in Tokyo.

Trinity should be up for pre-order late this month or early next.

As for Serenity, Kizuna, Journey, Justice, Haruka and Mika - all have been delayed due to the knock on effect from Trinity mask fixes. But not only the mask fixes - we have reached our maximum capacity for Smart Doll production.

But this could not have come at a better timing I guess. Four years ago when I launched Smart Doll I knew that vinyl was not a scalable production method - if we wanted to continue to solely rely on soft vinyl production - our business model would have to be one where we would only release limited editions in small quantities and target the same customer base over and over again - this would certainly be setting ourselves up for an early grave.

Instead I wanted to reach out to as many folks as possible who have not discovered fashion dolls and as a result about 45% of our customers month over month are new acquisitions - and we have been able to do this without relying on the limited edition business model.

I started to work on an injection molded version of Smart Doll 3 years ago - the project is codenamed Cortex. After researching the quality of injection models made by other Japanese manufacturers - I actually thought it could not be done so I dropped the project for a while. If those big guys could not do it - how could I?

Nobody knows exactly why we dream but there has to be a reason and one of the reasons is probably not so that we can give up on them.

There was a load of unknowns about Cortex - it could have completely failed while at the same time consuming most of our cashflow. It could have left us bankrupt. But I would have died not knowing whether it worked or not - my last words being “if it worked it would have changed absolutely everything - but I have no idea because I’m about to kick the bucket urghsghhh (game over jingle)”

I’m pleased to let you know that after a ton of trial and error over the past 3 years (including redoing the molds a few times) that the Cortex molds are being sandblasted this month - the last stage of mold production which gives us a matte finish for the shell.

Cortex differs from vinyl in the way that it is casted from an injection mold instead of a slush mold. We can now make tens of thousands of Smart Dolls per month instead of only one thousand. Both Vinyl and Cortex have their pro’s and cons which I will talk about in depth closer to the time of release which will be in time for this years holiday season. Production is still carried out in Japan and we will still hand craft the pre-assembled versions here in Tokyo.

There are 4 product lines planned with the Cortex Hybrid being released first.
Cortex Kit (assemble it yourself - including the frame) Priced the lowest
Full Cortex (pre-assembled)
Cortex Hybrid (pre-assembled half Cortex/Vinyl)
Full Vinyl (pre-assembled) Priced the highest

OK thats it for now - the next time I’ll ping you is when Trinity is up for pre-order.
 

Smarter

Well-known member
Danny here.

I just wanted to update you with info regarding the rest of the holidays.

Our last shipping day will be this Friday the 28th JST 5PM - that’s when the Japan Post guy comes to take the last collection from Mirai Store. If you want something shipped on that day then order as soon as you can - we will fulfill in the order received. If we go over capacity then your order will be processed after Jan 7th when we are back in the office.

I wrote a poem about shipping which lives here.

https://info.smartdoll.jp/en/posts/about-shipping

We released a new Smart Doll since we last spoke - Serenity

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/collections/smartdoll

Bust sizes Wide, XL, XXL, XXXL in all skin tones will be removed from the site so if you want them get them now. XL will be replaced because it defied Newtons Law of Gravity. The new one obeys Newtons Law (somewhat) and will come in painted and non painted versions due out early next year.

https://twitter.com/smartdoll/status/1073915212506353664

The large bust sizes - while looked normal in the anime world actually defied Einstein's Theory of Relativity in the real world.

I think that’s it for now. I wanted to write a long post about what happened in 2018 and what is planned for 2019 but I want to spend the last few days with my staff doing their end of year reviews.

2018 was an incredible year with so many changes that we always feel that its day one. You know that “a fresh start” feeling? Well he have that every day as we build anew and improve on the existing.

Anyway must dash - speak to you in the new year and hope you have a great time relaxing - watch a few movies, play a few games but also make time to read a few books and learn new stuff. I could play 12 hours of Spiderman on my Playstation and unlock that special suit - or watch the entire season of Cosmos and learn stuff that will benefit me during the course of my life. Oh there is another documentary you should check out - One Strange Rock hosted by Will Smith. If you liked Cosmos then you will certain like this.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/one-strange-rock/

Thanks for your continued support and speak to you in the new year.

Danny
 
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